Erin Condren Life Planner 2013-2014

Its here!! Its here!!

When I was on the search for a great planner for my 2013-2014 work and school year I came across ErinCondren.com and I fell in love. But I also had a hard time finding a good review on her life planners.

Her website made them look amazing and irresistible of course, but I wanted to see what people who used them really thought.... I came across a few blogs and reviews but not a lot of pictures of information showing me what was inside the planner. So now that I have mine, I thought I'd share! :)

Just an early warning..there will be lots and lot of pictures in this post! From front to back!

With the planner came some customized labels and gift labels.

And two $10 gift cards for future purchases! :)

Here is it, inside that pretty pink paper!!

Tada! There are LOTS of different covers to pick from. I thought I'd put a few picture on the cover with people and animals that make me smile. It'll be nice to look at everyday as this planner will go everywhere with me and get a lot of use in my crazy busy life.

They have these bands at target to keep everything together-they also had cute ones available when ordering your planner, but I already had a few so I skipped it.

A couple of pages in there is a sections for birthdays and anniversaries..Honestly, I will probably never use these pages. ha I will probably take advantage of this space to keep track what lesson plans to take out with me to my visits on that day. This would actually be a great way to do so, instead of using 100 sticky notes.

The two page spread of the month. Nice and roomy!

Also a nice roomy two page spread of each week! 

This is one of the two main things that I have to have in my planner. Its hard to find great planners with these pages in them. But between school and work I have to have a weekly break down. Last year I didn't have this in my planner and I lived off of large note cards each week to keep track of homework to do lists!

Each day is broken down by morning, day and night! There is also a space below for meal planning, lists, to dos, thoughts, etc. With a to do list space on the side next to Monday, I use this bottom space for meal planning each day!

After the monthly planning there is lined notebook paper AND doodle paper. There's a pretty good chunk of paper in there. This is great space for meeting notes and there is plenty of it too!

A few pages for important numbers and information. I'd think most people probably wouldn't use this space-but it is useful for my job.

 AND a four pages of customizable stickers. I have two pages of stickers with text on them and two pages of blank stickers. The colors match my color coding system too. :) haha

The second thing that I really needed and wanted in a planner was a pouch to store pens. In the pouch there were a few more customized labels, note cards, etc. I took this pouch and placed my pens in it.

Also, before the pouch is a two sided folder to store lose paper. :)

The laminated tabs! :)

The back page of the planner, I didn't add any pictures to the back.

Well, so far, still loving this thing! :)

Karah

Advocare 24 day challenge wrap up!

Well, that's a wrap folks!

Thursday was day 24 for me and I am done with the Advocare challenge!

Honestly, It was a pretty easy challenge. I didn't cheat and I stuck with it which was only hard when it came to having a drink or two on the deck with friends over the summer weekends. I'm not really a picky eater and I stick with the same foods for a while. So it was easy to find things I liked and stick with them. 

I have high hopes in getting my mom to start eating clean, I have to stop and remember that it might not be as easy for people to give up certain foods as It was for me. I gave up things all at once with starting the challenge so I didn't really have time to thing about it and I had already done the hard part about a year ago. Giving up soda and fast food!! While i was ok with not eating fast food, soda...that was HARD!

I did however, pick up a nasty coffee habit a year ago as well. I like a little coffee with my creamer and sweetener packets. Yuck, I cringe now when I think about how much of that crap I was drinking. 

But with Spark, that too was an easy thing to give up. I will go back to coffee, as spark inst always in the budget, but I will be using all natural sweeteners and using a lot less of it too! I will also do more herbal teas instead of so much coffee. 

I came across this picture in Pinterest and thought that would be a great way for somebody to start out slow and ease into the clean eating way of life.

Any who,

Don't worry, I've already dropped a few hints that a Keurig would be a great Christmas present this year. :)

Another thing that I put on that list was an individual smoothie maker. One that I can blend and take with me to go. I have been making my own clean and healthy breakfast shakes when I don't have time to sit down to have a carb and protein in the mornings.

I have been waiting on my Gostaks and Erin Condren Life Planner in the mail this past week so I am constantly checking for packages. Well the Thursday I had a package come in the mail but I was confused because I hadn't bought anything from that specific place, but it had my name on it, so I opened up the box to find the smoothie maker! AWESOME! But how the heck did I get this when I didn't even order it..

So I thought...who would send me this? My first thought was my mom just ordered it and my second thought was my Grandma Wanda who mails me things and is always so thoughtful....

Well, called my mom and she promised she had no idea what I was talking about so my next stop was to get a hold on Wanda but Andrew came home with a big smile on his face... 

It was him, he found one online and got it for me! It was a nice surprise for my successful 24 day challenge! He continues to tell me how proud of me he is for making healthy choices! :)

I've got some amazing people in my life... I am truly blessed!

Ok, so...wrapping up this challenge, here is an end of challenge picture to be compared to day 1!

 Here is day 1 at 164lbs.

 This picture is a day after the last day-day 25. 157 lbs.

I didn't end up dropping a ton of weight, but I did drop a healthy amount for those 24 days. I am also down a size in my pants and inches all over! All of my summer clothes-shorts that I bought end of summer last year and beginning of summer this year are now falling off. I literally do not have to unbutton or unzip any of them to get them on or off. haha :) I think I will keep them because that's a great feeling!

Andrew and I had a date night last night and he had to put a new notch in my belt for me. My jeans were falling off.  :)

Btw, I opted out on the ice cream stop that Andrew just had to make after we had dinner. I had looked into making  clean banana ice cream earlier that day so I knew I can eventually  have ice cream, just not from dairy queen! Mine will be better too!

For dinner we went and had our favorite sushi..Sorry guys, sushi is just one thing I will NEVER give up! We don't get it too often anyways. We didn't get out the door until 7:30 so we were starving once we got there and Andrew thought we really needed an appetizer. I agreed as long as it wasn't fried!! They had edamame on the menu, along with stuffed mushrooms...fried stuffed mushrooms.. :( I LOVE stuffed mushrooms....

So, we ordered.....edamame and had our sushi shortly after. I know, I know...that white rice is not good for you or clean...But....it really was a goooooood cheat meal! 

OH, and a very yummy glass of wine! I let myself have one glass and kept myself from ordering a second or third glass... 

I also wanted to share this link to a site that has some great clean eating information! Good ideas on food and ways to shop!

You can find it here!

Karah xoxo

DIY Headboard!

So excited to share my new headboard with you all! I was looking around pinterest for a DIY headboard and saw a bunch of different styles that I loved and thought I would try to tackle one on my own.

It was..well easy for Andrew to help me put together but, on my own, it would have been a tough project. I'm not a really very good with tools.

Anyways, here ya go...

Here is our bedroom before our new headboard! 

Yes, we have a bed in the shape of a circle.

its Ikea.....

 ....... yeah, idk....But hey its a king sized bed with the rounded sides! Very nice for when you have a chihuahua who likes to kick at night! :)

 We ventured to Menards and found 7ft boards, dark cherry stain, long heavy duty nails and a paint brush.

 Andrew got to work staining the boards. I planned on doing this all on my own, however, he said my arms were to short to give it the right brush strokes..haha..whatever...

 It took about...an hour to get everything measured out and placed in the correct spot. It really felt like 5 hours. 

Andrew and I don't  make a great team because he is a tad OCD and likes to really plan things out and do it the right way..I like to just get shit done..asap! So, with his help....it might not have been done super duper quickly, but It was done correctly and it looks great. 

I just have a hard time waiting for him to get things done..correctly. :)

 This was about 8pm, after a long day at work..So excuse the crazy hair and no make up look that I am rocking here but the headboard turned out great! Bay and I love it...oh yea, so does Andrew!! THANKS BABE!!! ;)

All in all...this ended up being a $50 project with the materials we bought. Andrew also went back t the store and bought a stud finder which was another $16. I am pretty happy with it, considering every headboard I have found started out around $150!

It was easy and something fun we were able to do together..and by do together, I mean Andrew did it while I hung around and nodded my head when he asked how it looked! :) haha I love my man!


BTW, today just happens to be day 24, the last day of my advocare challenge! WOOOWHOOOO! I'll post a wrap up soon.

Karah xoxo

Day 21! Dang you, Dr. Oz!

Dang you, Dr. Oz!!

Ok, so I love the Dr. Oz show. He always has great information to share and always practical but he always makes me want to jump online and buy about 100,000 things!

 With eating clean I am always buying fresh produce and racing to eat it all up before it goes bad. I also have a lot more that needs to be stored in the fridge now and I want to pull my hair out when Andrew puts things in the fridge. He is always putting things in the wrong spot!! :) Not that he can read my mind and know where the "right spot" for anything is... ha But I am always rearranging. Weird..I know..But I like to know what I do have, what were low on and what we need when I am meal planning.

So, after the fridge looked like a tornado hit it, I tried my best to get things organized again.

Much better...But..not good enough! 

I was watching Dr. Oz. this morning as well and he had a woman on his show talking about ways to keep fresh produce fresh for longer! She suggested these BPA free green food storage containers! I did a little research and found that I need to be using all BPA free anyways. I thought I would give it a try.

I ordered a set and hopefully it well help keep things organized and fresh longer!

These are what I went with!

In doing some research I had also come across these gostaks, also BPA free! I have been following many different people who are eating clean and meal prep each week. They all seem to suggest using things like this to help stay organized. I bought a set and will see if I like it. I am hoping that it will cut down on two sometimes three lunch boxes that It takes me to pack my days worth of meals!

So today is DAY 21!!!!  That's right, only 3 days left of this challenge!

I know that it will be a little more work, but I am going to continue with my clean eating. I just don't see any reason not to. I have really learned a lot with this challenge and I am loving the results. I might let myself have a cheat day here and there where I allow myself to have things like wine, beer or a slightly less healthy meal when dinning out, but probably will try to stay away from that more often then not. Like once a month! The goal here is to continue working towards a healthy weight, not maintain my weight loss so far. 

The other day I was reading a post from Mama Laughlin: Suck it up Buttercup and even though I am not allowing myself to slack off while on this challenge, it reminded me just how important it is to not slack off when you have goals in mind, even after the challenge ends in 3 days.

"You can't half-ass weight loss. That's called maintenance, and it will get you nowhere."

 -Mama Laughlin

I just have to remember that eventually I will get there. Eventually I will be able to enter the maintenance phase. But that isn't now, not today, not tomorrow, not even on the day after day 24! 

Honestly, It probably won't even be that day until after the new year! But that is OK with me because I see the light at the end of the tunnel and I can do this! Who wants to put that crappy food in their body anyways.. haha Right?? Yeah...I'd like to say NOT ME, but I'd only be half ass saying it. Sometimes I do want a BIG SLICE of pizza or a big bowl of something cheesy... haha But then I just try to find an all natural way of eating something like that...

Like this morning...I was really wanting some pancakes! Some yummy, hot and buttery pan cakes!

However, I wasn't willing to blow my challenge on pan cakes.

So I jumped on pinterest and looked around for something I could eat.

Just tossed 1/4 cup of oats, splash of organic vanilla soy milk and almost a whole banana into my little blender. Then I poured a pancake onto a skillet at low heat. This made about 4 small pancakes. I put a little all natural peanut butter on top wit the remaining bananas. It was really good!

Just two of the pancakes were pretty filling so I shared with Bailey! ;)

He doesn't really get much table food anymore so he was pretty happy! We are trying to cut down his weight also. For health reasons! :)

Here are a couple other things I've made this past week!

Turkey meatballs and couscous with onions and mushrooms on the side! So good!!

Spaghetti squash with onions, tomatoes and mushrooms! We also ended up added some left over meatballs to this which was really good too! I was surprisingly very full before even getting half way into this!

From here on out, I will be trying really hard to find some crock pot clean eating meals as my 3 day work week will go back to being a 6 sometimes 7 day work week of 14 hour work days! So if you have any ideas or recipes you would like to share PLEASE do!!

Karah

SMASH what?

Organizing, DIYers, SMASH books and staying busy. 

What a fun weekend it has been! Now back to Monday, a whole new week!

 

I am always looking for something new to organize around here and I never have any problem finding something to work on. Actually, I've got a pretty long to do list that I can work on during my short breaks between semesters!

I spent some time cleaning up the craft room last week and noticed that I needed to find somewhere for my hundred of sticker organizers to live.

 I was running out of space-I either needed to reorganize the closet in that room or find one place to store all of these stickers-stickers that I use for scrap booking and have been gathering for as long as I can remember!

I decided to no tackle that closet and to create a sticker binder instead. I have a couple of hanging file folder boxes and these little organizers full of stickers and scrap paper.

I took everything out and sorted by themes, placed in page protectors, stuck a sticky note with a label on each and placed them in a binder! Fast and easy to find and to do! I made a separate binder just for lettering stickers. I have a lot more of these and use them more often then the rest!

TA DA!!

Whenever I spend time in the craft room I get that itch to do something with all of my crafty things I love. You name it, I probably have it. Between painting, drawing and everything else I love to do, I have plenty of things to get it done! I even find Andrew in there looking for supplies when he is building his airplanes. 

He has his own space in the basement where he buildings things like remote controlled planes and cars.  We go out to the park a few times a week and he will fly one of his planes that he has been working on and then we will do our long walks! Here is one of his latest projects. 

Anyways, one of my favorite things to do is to climb in my bed, turn on a good show and surround myself with pens, markers, pencils, water colors, scissors, glue, washi tape, stickers and all of that fun stuff. I will find a book and start drawing,painting, jotting things down or doodling. Its a good way to spend my me time. :)

Little did I know that these books that I have been doing all of these things in for as far back as I can remember, like the middle school years, are now being marketed and sold in stores as SMASHbooks.Whoever came up with the thought to sell this idea in stores was a genius. Go them! 

When I hit the stores to grab some organizing supplies I was also on the look out for a new doodling book. I have hundreds of them from the past years.  I came across these SMASH books, which I have seen in the past but was not sure what they were. I jumped on pinterest and found some boards where people have shared their SMASH books. There is a whole world of these books that I didn't even know about. These look like fun so I grabbed one and thought Id try it out. Its kinda nice to already have a book put together for you and I just got started making it my own. I went with the "Pretty Pink" styled book!

Its a good relaxing way to get things on paper. Now, if they could just make everything water proof so I could do this in a nice bubble bath with a  bottle glass of wine that would be even better! ;)

Today is my last day of  summer break before going back to work at PAT and I only have two weeks until classes and my practicum start! Ahhh!!!  Its a bit overwhelming to think that starting this month I will not only be babysitting, but Ill be starting my work as a hospice social worker, back to being an educator AND back to being a student. Yikes.

However, before all that crazy stuff begins we have one last project to finish around here. FINALLY getting my DIY headboard completed! :) The boards are stained and ready to be put in place-as soon as Andrew is ready to put them there that is. Maybe this evening!

Here is a sneak peak! Look at my cute handy man at work! 

Ok, now back to my day of doing NOTHING, as it will be my last for at least a few months! 

Karah